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At every stage of your struggle with substance addiction, family addiction counseling is a necessary and vital component of moving on from your strongholds permanently. The key to thriving in sobriety is having a vital support group and encouragement of your loved ones. The mere presence of family may just be the motivation that you need to move forward.
It’s important to remember that true family is the one constant you can depend on through the darkest of times. While the world around you changes, loved ones remain. Thus, if you struggle with substance abuse, family addiction counseling could prove to be the missing piece of the puzzle in your recovery and continued sobriety.
The main ingredients to your addiction recovery and continued sobriety often depend on family support and relationships for long-term success. Thus, family therapy focuses on exactly what the name entails: family. That means everything to do with family can improve in alignment with your recovery progress. Everything you need to know about family addiction counseling lies in the details below.
Table of Contents
What is Family Addiction Counseling?
Family counseling, or family therapy, is when a therapist conducts a therapy session with a group of individuals who are related to the person in addiction treatment. Since addiction breaks down the family system and reveals vulnerabilities, it includes interventions that reflect family-level assessments, involvement, and approaches. Family therapy isn’t just for your recovery but for the recovery and overall well-being of the entire family as well.
Recovery is just as important for the family as it is for the one struggling with drug abuse or alcohol abuse. That’s because research suggests that adolescent substance abuse stems from unhealthy family dynamics. Through family therapy, the loved ones of those in rehab are taught by a professional therapist how to be supportive.
So, in short, what is family therapy all about? It’s all about taking the next step in your and your family’s collective recovery. It’s about mending relationships and uniting family. That way, the ties within the family in therapy are strengthened for a lifetime.
How Family Therapy Helps With Family Conflicts
Family therapy helps families resolve family conflicts that may have otherwise not been addressed. This is beneficial as most relationships aren’t mended solely because the people involved never heard one another out. With the barriers of communication with one’s whole family restored through therapeutic opportunities though, familial relationships can begin the process of becoming whole and managing complex family dynamics.
Rehab is a team effort. Allowing your family to join in on the team effort will have a lasting impact on both you and your family members. Through specially designed family therapy, family members of those in addiction treatment and recovery are equipped with the same coping mechanisms that their loved ones who are recovering from substance use disorder learned in treatment.
Among the most intricate traits that are developed by those who achieve sobriety is a consideration for others. That’s because addiction therapy sessions help individuals see the importance of maintaining sobriety and preventing relapse by understanding how it impacts others.
While in family therapy is also the time for an individual in recovery from addiction of substance use to help his or her family members understand the struggle of addiction and mental illness on a personal level. With the guidance of a professional therapist, you and your family will be on a fast track to individual understanding and complete restoration.
What are the Benefits of Family Addiction Counseling?
Many family addiction counseling benefits come down to being taught to manage natural impulses that cannot be controlled without proper training. You and your family need equal therapeutic attention from a professional. These individualized training methods teach both parties how to handle the circumstances of the addiction lifestyle properly.
The reparation and beneficial fruits of family addiction counseling are night and day. Most of these advantages manifest themselves in physical characteristics. But one thing is certain: family is a vital piece of the sobriety puzzle.
In a family therapy program, everybody wins because of the coping skills that are taught. During this phase of your recovery, it’s important to remember it’s not just you who needs therapy. Your family needs therapy as much as you do.
One of the greatest drivers of sobriety is understanding that your strongholds affect more than just yourself. They also impact your family and friends. Below is all the information and priceless benefits you and your family gain from family addiction counseling courses.
Goal-Oriented Therapy
An encouraging detail of family addiction counseling is that it establishes realistic, attainable goals for you to strive toward. Because of specially designed therapy from a professional intent on meeting your needs, no goal will be out of reach. Your goals are determined by the assessment of a specialist based on your individual stage of recovery.
The insight of the family can provide the most accurate assessment of what stage you are at in your sobriety goals. These goals do not just consider your individual recovery process. They also consider family goals that are achievable together. Therapy may be held at a treatment center, in an outpatient setting, or a therapist’s private office.
The main theme of these family addiction counseling sessions is togetherness. Whatever goals are accomplished by you or your family in recovery are accomplished together. Teamwork helps you and your family grow together with each goal you set and accomplish together. Through family conversations, realistic goals will take you step-by-step through the process of achieving sobriety.
Emotional and Physical Healing
It is equally important for both you and your family to begin emotionally and physically healing from substance abuse impacts. The methods of an addiction treatment therapist’s sessions are geared toward mending the emotional distress that was brought upon by addiction. Most, if not all, of these emotional impacts manifest themselves by affecting one’s overall health and wellness. Family therapy frequently employs cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). It promotes emotional control and positive change by allowing each family member to become aware of how their ideas (cognition) influence behaviors and other things that contribute to the problem.
The emotional tolls of addiction struggles are no less impactful on the members of the family unit of those with addictions to drug or alcohol use than they are on the addicts themselves. Such emotional distress trickles down into physical symptoms that affect your short-term and long-term health.
Your family therapist can help put the emotional and physical distress between you and your family at ease. In turn, family therapy utilizes the encouragement and motivational tools that everybody needs to help you continue in your rehab.
Empowerment
Enabling a loved one who struggles with addiction to date in the right areas makes all the difference in the treatment process. Most family members of people with substance addictions don’t realize that their actions, or lack thereof, have the opposite effect on one’s recovery. Sitting back and keeping your true thoughts and concerns bottled up are proven to have more of a hindering effect than one realizes. Without realizing it, such mental health behavior actually enables the one struggling to deepen into substance abuse.
Luckily, family addiction counseling courses teach your loved ones how to rally behind you and reinforce your efforts in sobriety continually. They will also be taught how to avoid the overlooked, unknown inhibitors of your recovery process by vocalizing their concerns.
It is often the unspoken words rather than the spoken words that discourage one from achieving a sober life. Thus, you’ll find how effective the simple idea of open communication is in a loved one’s recovery path.
Family Presence
All too often, failure to abstain from one’s strongholds stems from the negative feelings or thoughts of battling it alone. When surrounded by the companionship of loved ones, you’ll likely feel the burden of your struggles becoming lighter. Most who enroll in family therapy sessions don’t realize the impact the presence of family has on recovery until courses begin.
A wise proverb once said, “Two are better than because they have a good reward for their labor.” The application, in this case, is the more family involvement in your battle, the easier recovery will be.
Improved Family Relations
Therapy progresses easier with family, and family progresses easier with therapy. Among the greatest benefits of family therapy is the twofold purpose it serves in mending sobriety and family relationships in one swing.
Infusing therapy with family opens the floodgates to open, honest communication that remains with you all forever. This newfound communication skill trickles into every aspect of life in that it helps individuals continually build family relationships throughout the course of their lives.
How is Family Addiction Counseling Different from Others?
While individual or group therapy is highly effective, family therapy takes it to another level. Family therapy personalizes your therapeutic needs.
Therapy among family also individualizes your recovery approach on the most intimate level. This personalized approach makes it easier for your doctor to identify triggers and form more efficient methods for your treatment.
Loved ones have a greater knowledge and understanding of your background, giving your doctor valuable tools to make sobriety your reality.
This meticulous approach to sobriety is what makes Live Free Recovery patients soar high above other addiction treatment facility patients. The personability and individuality stressed in family addiction counseling are unmatchable. Highly efficient family therapy has proven to be the primary key to sobriety in most addiction cases. If you have or suspect you may have a health problem, you should consult your healthcare provider.
The Key to Unlock the Rest of Your Life
Only the most personalized forms of therapy with your individual needs in mind can make your recovery a nearly stress-free and enjoyable experience. The addiction treatment specialists and therapists at Live Free Recovery ensure that each recovery process, treatment option, and treatment plan is designed to meet the unique needs of each patient.
Taking the first step in contacting us today at Live Free Recovery for family addiction counseling may be the life-altering solution you need. You can take control of your struggles with substance abuse simply by following what your heart is telling you now. Live Free Recovery is the door to helping you live free of your addictions forever.
Published on: 2022-01-27
Updated on: 2024-05-10